


Potion Commotion

by starrnobella



Series: 24 days of starrnobella [13]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 24 days of starrnobella, Advent Calendar, Christmas Countdown, Christmas Party, F/M, Gen, Love Potion/Spell, Mistletoe, Out of Character, Pranks and Practical Jokes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2019-02-14 12:06:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13007424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrnobella/pseuds/starrnobella
Summary: Sometimes potions don't always work the way the creator was expecting them to work.





	Potion Commotion

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I will apologize now if anyone in this story appears Out of Character. I am aware that it can be interpreted as such, but also keep in mind that the twins are involved which means that obviously there is more at play than what meets the eye. Please keep this in mind before you flood my inbox with comments telling me how OOC characters may be.
> 
> That all being said, I love writing the twins and it makes things even more entertaining. Especially because they love causing trouble which is something I love writing.
> 
> This story was prompted by HGardiner and was beta read by xxDustNight88. Thank you both for helping with this story!
> 
> All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.
> 
> If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out (starrnobella Fanfiction) as well as a group (starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr (starrnobella) that you can follow along with me as well.
> 
> Title: Potion Commotion  
> Pairing: Sevmione  
> Rating: K  
> Summary: Sometimes potions don't always work the way the creator was expecting them to work.
> 
> Enjoy and I can't wait to share the rest of these lovely stories with you all!
> 
> Love always,
> 
> ~starr

The holiday season was upon them and the twins were already planning their annual holiday prank for the Hogwarts Christmas party. Every year the alumni of Hogwarts would return for a party with their former Professors and the next generation of students. It was a chance for new networks to be built in the Wizarding World and it was the perfect opportunity for Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes to test out their latest and greatest products.

"You know what I think would be a wonderful product to test out this year at the party, Georgie my boy?" Fred asked as he thumbed through the latest edition of the Daily Prophet.

"What's that?" George asked, looking up from the cauldron he was currently stirring. He was attempting to make a few alterations to their love potion before the rush of after Christmas sales took over Diagon Alley. With the changes, the twins hoped to increase the revenue on the product.

"Love Potion No. 9," Fred replied, setting the paper aside and pushed himself up off the couch. He walked over to where George was working and peered over his shoulder at the potion that was bubbling inside the cauldron. "It's almost ready, don't you think?"

George nodded. "I just need to add one more ingredient and it should be ready for the testing phase," he replied, walking across the kitchen and opening up one of the cupboards to grab the final ingredient needed. "The powdered moonstone."

Smiling at the vial as he picked up, George returned to the cauldron and popped the top on the vial. He flipped it upside down and poured half of the powder into the cauldron. Quickly, he turned the vial back over as to make sure that there was just enough of the powder inside, but not too much because the moonstone is what really made the potion work.

George stirred the potion three times in a counterclockwise direction before turning to Fred with a large smile on his face. "It's ready," he said happily.

"And just in time," Fred replied.

They bottled up a small serving of the potion and grabbed their coats. It was time for the party.

. . . . . . . .

Hermione always dreaded attending this event. The evening always went in the exact same order. Cocktail hour where everyone bragged about how successful they had become since graduation or talked about how spectacular the last year of their lives had been. Then, the Minister for Magic would speak about how wonderful this last year had been and say how much he looked forward to what the coming year would hold for Hogwarts and the Wizarding World.

After that they would all be ushered into the Great Hall and asked to sit with their former Housemates. She would always be forced to sit with Harry and Ron because  _Merlin forbid we separate the Golden Trio during one of these events._  She shook her head in disgust at the thought. For once, she'd like to be remembered plain and simply as Hermione Granger, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, rather than Hermione Granger, best friend and ally to the Chosen One.

Rolling her eyes, she walked over to the punch bowl. When she got closer she realized that Fred and George were standing nearby watching the crowd of people around them. She was quite certain that they were up to something, but then again, they were always up to something. Shaking her head, she reached for the ladle and poured herself a glass of the punch.

She noticed that the coloring of the drink was much more pink than any year prior, but that wasn't her main concern. Her main concern was that the drink sparkled. In all of the years that she had been attending the party, she didn't remember the punch sparkling. However, she raised the cup to her lips and took a sip of the beverage. It was sweet and tasted delicious. Looking down at the cup in her hands, she shrugged and walked over to where the twins were standing.

"Hello, boys," Hermione said, walking up to Fred and George, who turned toward her with a smile on each of their faces.

"Hey Hermione, how are you doing?" George asked before Fred elbowed him in the side and motioned towards Hermione's hand with his head. George's eyes grew large when he realized that she had accidentally fallen victim to their test product. George carded a hand through his hair quickly as he waited for her reply.

"I'm doing alright, George. How are you doing?" she replied happily, raising the glass in question to her lips and taking another sip of the sparkling beverage.

"I'm doing well, thanks. How's the punch?" George asked, furrowing his brow slightly. He was trying to come up with an explanation as to what was going on if she happened to be upset about what was happening.

Fred elbowed him in the side roughly and stepped in between his brother and Hermione. "What he means is, how does it taste?" Fred asked through gritted teeth. "We were considering getting some, but if it tastes like rubbish then we won't waste our time."

Hermione looked down at the cup in her hands and shrugged before looking back at the twins. "It tastes alright to me," she replied.

. . . . . . . .

Severus Snape sat patiently at the head table as he waited for the Minister to introduce the staff of Hogwarts and allow Minerva to say a few words before the feast was served. Then and only then would he have his chance to sneak out before the dancing began and return to his lab.

This event was far too frivolous in his opinion and everyone here was lying through their teeth if they claimed that they looked forward to this party every year. It was the most repetitive evening he had ever been forced to attend. As much as he would like to believe he would be able to sneak off to his lab for the evening, he knew from prior experience that someone would feel it necessary to talk to him and prevent him from leaving when the dancing began.

Typically, he was caught by one of his colleagues, however, last year he had been caught by one of his former students. Hermione Granger had caught his attention last year about an article she had read in a periodical and she wanted to discuss the ramifications of such a potion should it be put into action.

The conversation had made him think. More so than when he had actually written the article for publication. The fact that she was able to find something in his work to question proved to him that she may have actually been one of the brightest witches he had ever had the pleasure of teaching. After their conversation at this party last year, the two kept up a regular correspondence as Severus worked to alter his original findings to apply what Hermione had been able to point out.

Taking a sip from his glass of punch, Severus scanned the room for her. He knew from the last letter that he had received from her that she would be in attendance this evening. It was only a matter of time until he would be able to find her. The thought crossed his mind that maybe she'd like to help him in the lab instead of staying behind to watch the circus that was bound to unfold before them.

"Where is she?" he thought to himself, allowing his eyes to wander around the room. He was careful not to make eye contact with anyone, however. He really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone else who was in attendance this evening.

Finally, his eyes landed on the back of her head. She was currently talking with two of the worst Potions students that he had ever had the pleasure of teaching. However, they did have a successful joke shop since graduating from Hogwarts. So something Severus had taught them must have stuck because he knew they were known for some of their potions.

Taking another sip of his punch, he glared at the remaining liquid in the glass. It was sparkling. Why the hell was it sparkling? He shook his head because he honestly didn't want to know what the answer to that question was. The drink was doing its job and quenching his thirst, so it didn't really matter how peculiar it looked.

. . . . . . . .

"What do you mean you just poured the entire sample vial into the punch bowl?" George shouted at Fred in a hushed tone as they walked out of the Great Hall for a few moments during dinner. He didn't believe Fred at first when he had made an off the cuff comment about testing the sample on a large scale, but deep down he knew that he should have known better than to let Fred be in charge of distribution. They weren't ready to test the product out on the masses yet.

Fred shrugged his shoulders and carded a hand through his hair. "I was pouring some of the sample into the punch and my hand may have slipped," he replied.

"The potion isn't supposed to be used on a large crowd of people. We've never tested its effects on a large crowd. We don't know what's going to happen," George replied, shaking his head as he attempt to formulate some kind of plan or explaination to get them out of their current predicament.

"It'll be perfectly alright," Fred said, placing a gentle hand on George's shoulder. "It's a love potion, not a fake sickness potion. What could possibly go wrong?"

"Did you really just ask me that?" George yelled, throwing his hands in the air.

A few heads turned to look at him, but he shook his head and took a deep breath, closing his eyes briefly before turning his focus back to Fred. Sure, nothing too terrible could go wrong with a love potion being distributed to a room full of people, but they didn't know the side effects that came along with the new formulation for the potion. It was going to be an interesting field test for the potions, that's all he really knew for sure.

"If something terrible happens, then it is on you. Do you understand me?" George said, pointing a finger at Fred, who put his hands up and slowly nodded his head. George smiled and lowered his hand. "Good. Now let's go check on everyone that we know was drinking the punch."

. . . . . . . .

Dinner was over and it was time for the dancing to begin. Severus shook his head as he walked away from the front table to refill his glass. It wasn't so much that he wanted more of the sparkling punch, but there was something about it that kept drawing him back in for more. As he neared the table, a smile appeared on his solemn face when he realized that Hermione was also there topping of her own glass of the ridiculous drink.

"Good evening, Hermione," he said calmly, placing his glass on the table as he waited for her to finish with the ladle.

As she turned to look at him, the look of shock on her face faded to a smile when she realized who had snuck up on her when she wasn't paying attention. Placing her glass down next to his, she turned to face him. "Good evening, Professor. Doing well?" she asked.

He nodded his head slowly. "Quite, and you?" he replied.

"I'm doing well," she said, looking down at his empty glass before reaching to pick it up. "Need a refill?"

"Please," Severus replied, watching her every move as she refilled his cup before returning it to its place on the table.

"Enjoying the party?" she asked, leaning up against the table as she rested her arms on her hips, unsure as to what to do with her hands.

"I'd rather be in my lab working on that potion we last spoke about," Severus replied, glancing out over on going festivities. "I was never one to enjoy all the dancing that happened after the dinner at these events."

Hermione laughed. "I don't tend to enjoy this part of the evening either. Actually, if I'm being quite honest, I don't enjoy this evening much at all or at least I haven't since graduating from Hogwarts. It's become quite a repetitive evening as the years go by, always following the same routine. Didn't anyone think about changing things up a bit?"

Severus laughed as he thought about her words. She was right. The evening always started and ended the same. It didn't matter who was in attendance. It especially didn't matter who was in the positions of power at the time. The speech that Minerva gave was almost identical to the one he had heard Dumbledore give each and every year during his time working at Hogwarts. And he didn't even want to begin to think about the Minister's speech. He could recite it word for word without hesitation.

"Apparently not," Severus replied, shaking his head. "I'm only here the Hogwarts staff are required to attend."

"As I'm only here because the Ministry requires us to be here," Hermione replied. "How is that potion coming along? Your last letter didn't sound very hopeful for those changes we had proposed."

"It isn't reacting the way that we had predicted. In fact, it's not reacting at all," Severus said.

"Odd," Hermione said. "I wonder what's going on with it."

. . . . . . . .

Out of the corner of his eye, Fred happened to spot Hermione and Professor Snape standing near the punch bowl. Turning slowly, he continued to watch them as they spoke. He wasn't sure what they were discussing, but whatever it was must have been important. He also noticed the way that Snape's face would light up as he listened to Hermione speak.

Fred couldn't think of a time where he had ever seen the Professor's face light up the way that it was right now. As he watched the two of them talk, it appeared that there may have been more to the conversation than what was meeting the eyes. It was times like this that Fred wished he had carried an extendable ear on his person at all times.

"What are you looking at?" George asked, coming up behind his brother and peering over his shoulder to see if he could find what Fred was staring at so intently.

Fred nodded toward the punch bowl without saying another word. He was still trying to wrap his mind around the scene that he was looking at. It was so unusual to see the Potions Master with a smile on his face.

"What's Snape smiling at?" George asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he walked around Fred and stood beside him, watching the Potions Master. "Who's he talking to?"

"That's Hermione," Fred replied.

"Really?" George said, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands briefly before looking over at the pair across the room. "Merlin's beard, it is Hermione. What's she talking to him about?"

"Who knows, but I have a wickedly brilliant idea," Fred said with a smirk, reaching into his pocket and extracting his wand. Motioning the wand in a small circle towards the ceiling just above Hermione and their former Professor, he cast a spell.

. . . . . . . .

Hermione thought she heard something crackling above her while she was listening to Severus discuss the issues he was having with the ingredient changes they had discussed to improve his potion. Slowly she lifted her eyes above his head and tilted her head back slightly.

"Hermione?" Severus asked, watching her head tip back. He stepped forward, closing the space between them in an effort to catch her before she fainted. However, when he got closer, he realized that she wasn't fainting, she was merely looking at the ceiling. As he lifted his own eyes to follow her gaze, he realized what had caught her attention.

"Mistletoe," they mumbled in unison as they lowered their heads until they were looking into one another's eyes.

Swallowing roughly, Severus attempted to take a step backwards, only to feel the tug of magic stopping him from going any further. He quickly carded a hand through his hair as he tried to figure out a way to get out of this rather awkward situation. She was his former student after all, but there was something about her that he hadn't noticed before. Although, maybe that was the punch talking.

Hermione looked past him and scanned the room for the two culprits that she was fairly certain had planned this little surprise, but she could not find them in the near vicinity. Typical behavior of the twins, however. They enjoyed watching their pranks play out from a safe distance away so that they could not be hexed for their antics.

Sighing, Hermione looked up at her former Professor. It appeared as though he was attempting to figure out how to break this "curse" without having to do what was required. From her own personal experience, she knew that trying to trick the mistletoe would only backfire and they would be stuck in this trap longer.

She took a step towards him and pressed up on her tiptoes. Cupping his cheek gently, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. She hoped that he would at least play along long enough for the mistletoe to release them. However, instead of pulling away as she expected him to do, she felt him close the remaining space between them and wrapping his arm gently around her waist, pulling her flesh to his chest.

He tilted his head to the side, deepening the kiss and hoping that she would follow rather than denying her the simple request. She happily obliged and lowered her hand from his cheek to wrap her arms around his neck.

They remained like that for a few moments and both felt the tingling sensation of the mistletoe fading into the night. When they finally pulled apart, neither said a word. It was as though they weren't ready to let the reality of what just happened come into play. They stared at one another in utter silence until Hermione finally took a step back, but only about half a step.

"I'm sorry. I just knew that the spell wouldn't break any other way,." she said, her voice trailing off when Severus pressed a gentle finger to her lips.

"That's quite alright, Hermione. I was just about to do the same thing," he replied, an innocent smile playing at the corners of his lips.

. . . . . . . .

"You," an irritated voice called from behind them.

Fred and George hung their heads and sighed as they turned around to face the music. It was time that they took responsibility for their actions. It was becoming a regular part of their testing cycle for their new products.

"Hermione," George began to say only to be cut off.

"What in Godric's name were you thinking placing magic mistletoe above my head while I was talking to Professor Snape?" she shouted, smacking each one of them on their shoulders. Knowing that it was mostly Fred's fault, she made a point of smacking his shoulder a few more times.

"I thought it was as good of time as any to test out the ending results of our potion," Fred said with a shrug. George reached over and smacked him in the stomach. "What?" Fred huffed, snapping his head to look at his twin.

"What potion?" Hermione asked through gritted teeth.

Fred and George looked at each other once before looking back at Hermione. They had been caught and it was only going to be a matter of time until everyone else began to feel the effects of the potion wearing off.

"Oh, look at the time," Fred said looking down at his wrist. "We really should be going. Right, George?"

"Uh, right. Merry Christmas, Hermione," George said.

The twins turned and took off at a run as they made their way to the apparition point.


End file.
